What they did, they did for you

If you missed the story across the top of Page One in Thursday’s U-T San Diego, go back and fish the paper out of the bird cage. Or go online and find the story (utsandiego.com/hero-ships/). And if you did already read it, you might even go back and read it again.

The story was about Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announcing the names that will be bestowed on three of the Navy’s next five ships. It was the kind of story you may have seen a thousand times. But this one was special.

Two of the ships, destroyers, will be named for Marine Staff Sgt. Rafael Peralta and Navy Chief Petty Officer John William Finn. They are heroes. And they were sons of San Diego.

The third ship, also a destroyer, will be named for Pfc. Ralph Henry Johnson, a former Camp Pendleton Marine. He was a hero, too.

Peralta and Johnson both threw themselves on grenades to save their comrades, Peralta in Iraq and Johnson in Vietnam. Finn, hit 21 times by Japanese bullets and bomb fragments, was a hero of Dec. 7, 1941.

It’s not yet known where the three ships will be based. But if they ever find their way into San Diego Bay, go down and think about Peralta, Johnson and Finn. What they did, they did for you.